OVERTOWN, A COMMUNITY WHERE ALL CHILDREN AND YOUTH THRIVE
In the fall of 2012, the Overtown Children and Youth Coalition (OCYC) was formed by the anchoring community based non-profit organizations in the Overtown Community: Urgent, Inc., Overtown Youth Center, Touching Miami With Love, Lotus House and Dress for Success with the support of the Southeast Overtown/Park West Community Redevelopment Agency and City of Miami District 5 City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. Within a few months several other stakeholders joined forces and began to work together under the umbrella of the Overtown Children and Youth Coalition. Establishing the OCYC was a groundbreaking step toward addressing the needs of Overtown’s children in a more holistic manner, a focus designed to move away from the service based structure that addressed needs in siloes and towards a collective impact and systems-level approach.
The Coalition charged itself with three distinct responsibilities:
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- 1. Create a shared vision for community-wide action that promotes excellence, empowerment, economic growth and success for all Overtown children and youth
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- 2. Prepare an application to become Florida’s fourth Children’s Initiative; and
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- 3. Develop a pipeline of integrated high-quality pathways for youth to succeed from birth through college.
While the Coalition has been involved in several activities related to these responsibilities, its most significant accomplishment to date is the completion of the community’s first Children and Youth Master Plan (Plan). In addition, the Plan is a necessary component of the Florida Children’s Initiative Application.
The Plan provides an investment blueprint for those seeking to allocate resources to improve outcomes for children, youth and their families who call Overtown home. The Plan is the direct result of hundreds of hours of discussion, debate and problem-solving that began with strategic planning sessions, focus groups, interviews, surveys and monthly meetings for the past two and a half years with professionals, parents, and youth representation. The Plan is aligned with several existing plans in Miami Dade County including The Children’s Trust Strategic Plan, The City of Miami My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge, and City of Miami Anti-Poverty Initiative.
The Plan aspires to leverage current community assets and maximize opportunities for private and public investment, the development of a dedicated source of revenue, philanthropy and building an asset bank of cash and in-kind contributions from a cross-sector group of stakeholders who desire to improve outcomes for all of Overtown’s children.
